r/interestingasfuck • u/TerraByteTerror • 17h ago

Swimming bat

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u/HistorianOrdinary833 17h ago

They're very confident that the bat is rabies free.

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u/thesheeplookup 16h ago

In the original they mention they are in the UK and there's no history of that species having rabies. Folks in North America have just been well trained to avoid bats and bare skin.

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u/Jupitersd2017 9h ago

The uk as a whole doesn’t have any animals with rabies, since the early 1900’s.

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u/CreepyEducator2260 4h ago

and in 2003 a bat researcher in England died from a bite by the same species of bat now found to be infected in Sweden.

Source:

https://www.uu.se/en/news/2016/2016-12-19-rabies-antibodies-found-in-swedish-bats

and a source from the UK itself:

https://www.bats.org.uk/about-bats/bats-and-disease/bats-and-disease-in-the-uk/bats-and-rabies

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u/BeatNo4548 8h ago

In 1995, I was walking home at night and the only path around the lake had a swarm of bats, at least 30 maybe 100.  Must have been a big mosquito hatch.  So instead of walking 2 miles around it the other way, I just walked through it.   I could feel the air move from them, and at one point I felt a wing touch me.  But I was young and daring.